Washington DC - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Nigerian National Security Advisor Nuhu Ribadu, urging Africa's most populous nation to take steps to curb alleged violence against Christians, the Pentagon said Friday.

Hegseth called on Nigeria to "take both urgent and enduring action to stop violence against Christians," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement, adding that Washington wants to work with Abuja "to deter and degrade terrorists that threaten the United States."

Nigeria, home to 230 million inhabitants, is divided roughly equally between a predominantly Christian south and a Muslim-majority north.

It is the scene of numerous conflicts, including jihadist insurgencies, which kill both Christians and Muslims, often indiscriminately.

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Clashes are also frequent between mostly Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers over land and resources, particularly water, giving the conflict an air of religious tensions.

However, experts say the conflict in northcentral Nigeria is primarily over land, which is being squeezed by expanding populations, and climate change.